Communication Nation

The future is podular

2011-04-18T12:58:00.002-05:00

The future is podular, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

One of the most difficult challenges companies face today is how to be more flexible and adaptive in a dynamic, volatile business environment. How do you build a company that can identify and capitalize on opportunities, navigate around risks and other challenges, and respond quickly to changes in the environment? How do you embed that kind of agility into the DNA of your company?

The answer is to distribute control in such a way that decisions can be made as quickly and as close to customers as possible. There is no way for people to respond and adapt quickly if they have to get permission before they can do anything.

If you want an adaptive company, you will need to unleash the creative forces in your organization, so people have the freedom to deliver value to customers and respond to their needs more dynamically. One way to do this is by enabling small, autonomous units that can act and react quickly and easily, without fear of disrupting other business activities – pods.

A pod is a small, autonomous unit that is enabled and empowered to deliver the things that customers value.

Read the rest of the post,The future is podular, on the Connected Company blog

The connected company

2011-02-08T19:37:00.016-06:00

Many thanks to Thomas Vander Wal for the many conversations that inspired this post.

The average life expectancy of a human being in the 21st century is about 67 years. Do you know what the average life expectancy for a company is?

Surprisingly short, it turns out. In a recent talk, John Hagel pointed out that the average life expectancy of a company in the S&P 500 has dropped precipitously, from 75 years (in 1937) to 15 years in a more recent study. Why is the life expectancy of a company so low? And why is it dropping?

I believe that many of these companies are collapsing under their own weight. As companies grow they invariably increase in complexity, and as things get more complex they become more difficult to control.

The statistics back up this assumption. A recent analysis in the CYBAEA Journal looked at profit-per-employee at 475 of the S&P 500, and the results were astounding: As you triple the number of employees, their productivity drops by half (Chart here).

This “3/2 law” of employee productivity, along with the death rate for large companies, is pretty scary stuff. Surely we can do better?

I believe we can. The secret, I think, lies in understanding the nature of large, complex systems, and letting go of some of our traditional notions of how companies function.

THE COMPANY AS A MACHINE

Historically, we have thought of companies as machines, and we have designed them like we design machines. A machine typically has the following characteristics:

1. It’s designed to be controlled by a driver or operator.
2. It needs to be maintained, and when it breaks down, you fix it.
3. A machine pretty much works in the same way for the life of the machine. Eventually, things change, or the machine wears out, and you need to build or buy a new machine.

A car is a perfect example of machine design. It’s controlled by a driver. Mechanics perform routine maintenance and fix it when it breaks down. Eventually the car wears out, or your needs change, so you sell the car and buy a new one.

And we tend to design companies the way we design machines: We need the company to perform a certain function, so we design and build it to perform that function. Over time, things change. The company grows beyond a certain point. New systems are needed. Customers want different products and services, so we need to redesign and rebuild the machine, or buy a new one, to serve the new functions.

This kind of rebuilding goes by many names, including re-organization, reengineering, right-sizing, flattening and so on. The problem with this kind of thinking is that the nature of a machine is to remain static, while the nature of a company is to grow. This conflict causes all kinds of problems because you have to redesign and rebuild the company while you also need to operate it – an idea dramatized in an EDS commercial from a few years ago: Building an airplane in flight.

THE COMPANY AS AN ORGANISM

It’s time to think about what companies really are, and to design with that in mind. Companies are not so much machines as complex, dynamic, growing systems. As they get larger, acquiring smaller companies, entering into joint ventures and partnerships, and expanding overseas, they become “systems of systems” that rival nation-states in scale and reach.

So what happens if we rethink the modern company, if we stop thinking of it as a machine and start thinking of it as a complex, growing system? What happens if we think of it less like a machine and more like an organism? Or even better, what if we compared the company with other large, complex human systems, like, for example, the city?

Cities are large, complex, systems, but we don’t really try to control them. In Stephen B. Johnson's book Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Softwarehe quotes complexity pioneer John Holland:

Cities have no central planning commissions that solve the problem of purchasing and distributing supplies… How do these cities avoid devastating swings between shortage and glut, year after year, decade after decade?

No, we don’t try to control cities, but we can manage them well. And if we start to look at companies as complex systems instead of machines, we can start to design and manage them for productivity instead of continuously hovering on the edge of collapse.

Cities aren't just complex and difficult to control. They are also more productive than their corporate counterparts. In fact, the rules governing city productivity stand in stark contrast to the ominous “3/2 rule” that applies to companies. As companies add people, productivity shrinks. But as cities add people, productivity actually grows.

A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that as the working population in a given area doubles, productivity (measured in this case by the rate of invention) goes up by 20%. This finding is borne out by study after study. If you’re interested in going deeper, take a look at this recent New York Times article: A Physicist Solves the City.

Okay, you say, but cities are fundamentally different than companies. Just because this works for cities doesn’t mean that it will work for companies. Right?

THE LONG-LIVED COMPANY

Actually there’s some interesting data there too. Back in the early 1980’s, right after the revolution in Iran, Shell Oil was concerned about the future of the oil industry. What might Shell look like after oil, they wondered? So they commissioned a study with some very interesting parameters:

1. First, they looked only at large companies with relative dominance in their industries, companies similar to Shell in that regard.
2. Second, they looked only at companies with very long lifespans – 100 years or more.
3. Third, they looked at companies who had made a major shift from one industry or product category to another.

In other words, they looked at the immortals: the companies that didn't die.

The study was never published, but the findings were detailed in a book: The Living Company by Shell executive Arie de Geus. Shell studied 40 large, long-lived companies, some of which were still surviving after 400+ years.

Interestingly, these companies had a lot in common with large cities:

Ecosystems: Long-lived companies were decentralized. They tolerated “eccentric activities at the margins.” They were very active in partnerships and joint ventures. The boundaries of the company were less clearly delineated, and local groups had more autonomy over their decisions, than you would expect in the typical global corporation.

Strong identity: Although the organization was loosely controlled, long-lived companies were connected by a strong, shared culture. Everyone in the company understood the company’s values. These companies tended to promote from within in order to keep that culture strong. Cities also share this common identity: think of the difference between a New Yorker and a Los Angelino, or a Parisian, for example. At the Dachis Group we like to call this common culture hivemind.

Active listening: Long-lived companies had their eyes and ears focused on the world around them and were constantly seeking opportunities. Because of their decentralized nature and strong shared culture, it was easier for them to spot opportunities in the changing world and act, proactively and decisively, to capitalize on them. At Dachis we sometimes call this dynamic signal (watching and listening) and metafilter (information leading to decisive action).

DESIGN BY DIVISION

Historically we have designed companies like machines – by division. We construct the org chart to divide the big chunks of work and separate them from each other: Finance, Sales, Operations. We design the work flows that process inputs into outputs: raw materials into products, prospects into customers, complaints into resolutions.

As we design this kind of company – the divided company – we need to separate functions, which means people may not always have a sense of the larger thing they are working on. They get very good at one of the tasks, but lose touch with the larger picture. So we have to design rigid policies and procedures so people will function efficiently and so they won’t interfere with each others’ work.

The problem comes with scale. As the number of employees grows, the profit per employee shrinks. It’s a game of diminishing returns. Efficiencies of scale are balanced out by the burdens of bureaucracy. Divisions become silos, disconnected from each other. Overhead costs increase with size. The resulting need for control, and the inability to achieve it at a reasonable cost, is what eventually kills a business.

DESIGN BY CONNECTION

Although we tend to design companies like machines, we instinctively and intuitively understand that companies are not made of cogs, levers and gears. In the end, they are made out of people. For top management, it would be wonderful if we could put our business strategy into the machine, push a button and wait for the results. But it doesn’t work that way. You have to put your strategy into people if you want to get results.

And today, thanks to social technologies, we finally have the tools to manage companies like the complex organisms they are. Social Business Design is design for companies that are made out of people. It’s design for complexity, for productivity, and for longevity. It’s not design by division but design by connection.

To design the connected company we must focus on the company as a complex ecosystem, a set of connections and potential connections, a decentralized organism that has eyes and ears everywhere that people touch the company, whether they are employees, partners, customers or suppliers.

Social Business Design is a new discipline, but some basic rules are already emerging. These emerging rules have less in common with traditional business design, and more in common with urban design and city planning. It’s not about design for control so much as design for emergence. You can’t control a complex system, but you can manage its growth, and there are a lot of things you can do that will position it for success. Here are a few of those emerging practices that signal excellence in design by connection:

Understand the culture: A company is like a city in many ways. First and foremost, a city is about the people who live and work there; it’s an expression of their collective culture. Before you can start your path to the connected company, you need to understand the culture (or cultures) that are already there, so you can look for ways to enhance and strengthen that shared identity.

Start small. Urban designers might look at maps or aerial views as they make their plans, but the life of a city happens at street level. As you initiate social programs, think of them as if you are designing a city street. A successful street is filled with people. The last thing you want is a whole bunch of large, urban areas with no people in them. In a city, big, open, empty spaces feel unsafe and unloved. So start small. The smaller the space is initially, the faster it will fill up with people. A good way to start is with an organization-wide project or initiative that requires participation from a number of people across the company. This gives you a cross-section of ideas and perspectives to look at as you plan the next stage.

Spaces need owners. Again, think of the city street: every business or building has an owner. The sidewalks have owners – typically every business at street level “polices” their stretch of sidewalk. And even the street has owners – the street sweeper, the cop on the beat. In the same way, make sure that every online space you create has someone positioned to take care of it, to keep it safe and clean.

Every person needs a place. In the same way that public spaces need caretakers, every person needs a place to live; somewhere they can put their stuff. As you build your social business, make sure that every single person has a place where they can put, and see, their stuff: their projects, the links they want to get back to, the documents they have created, their role, qualifications, expertise and so on.

Jumping-off points. A good city street offers opportunities that are unanticipated but serendipitous. The promising side-street. The sound of music coming through an open door. As you design for connection, think about how you might create those unexpected, but delightful, surprises. Every time someone visits an online space, there’s a chance to offer them something new.

Watch, listen, adjust and adapt. Design by connection is not a top-down activity so much as bottom-up. Complex systems just don’t work that way. In a complex system, you need to pay attention to small things and make little adjustments along the way. Think about how city streets evolve: one small step at a time. One retailer moves to a larger space; another goes out of business. One old building is torn down and replaced; another is rehabbed and turned into lofts. Pay attention to the culture, and watch how people react to the tools you provide. Are they using something in a different way than you expected? Find out why and see if you can enhance that. And what are they ignoring? If they’re not using something you expected them to use, go talk to them and see if you can figure out the reason.

The typical company has a very short life, from 15 to 50 years. But cities – and some companies – live much longer lifespans: from hundreds to thousands of years. Wouldn’t you like that for your company? I know I would.

Further reading: The future is podular.

If you have thoughts I would love to hear them. Please take a moment and leave a comment.

Update: Based on the extreme volume of response to this post I have set up an email discussion group for those who want to continue the conversation. Please join us here.

The role of visual thinking and communication in change management

2011-01-31T19:24:00.003-06:00

Dr. Martin Eppler of the University of St. Gallen interviews me about visual thinking and change.

Yes it's a bit more formal than I usually get, but I was in Switzerland and they like that kind of thing :)

This video is related to an interview I gave on change management for the management journal Organizations Entwicklung. You can read the article (and comment) in English here and in German here.

Leave a comment! I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts.

What is Gamestorming?

2010-11-20T19:54:00.001-06:00

For more Gamestorming goodness, check out the Gamestorming blog.

Information shadows and spimes

2010-11-02T16:31:00.001-05:00

Information shadows and spimes, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

In his book Smart Things, Mike Kuniavsky talks about the information shadow as an essential element of a smart thing. The information shadow is the information that's associated with an object such as its name, number, position in space and time, and so on.

Metaphors also help people understand new services by linking the new to the familiar. For example, RFID was first introduced as the next generation of the bar code, even though the two technologies had little in common.

Information shadows allow designers to make objects simpler, to reduce the size of interfaces and reduce the display requirements of an object. An iPod shuffle, for example, can be tiny because the information display resides in iTunes, not on the device.

Science fiction author and futurist Bruce Sterling coined the term spime to describe an object that can be tracked through space and time throughout the lifetime of the object.

This is part of a project called Ubicomp Sketchbook that I initiated with user experience designer Peter Morville, author of Ambient Findability and Search Patterns, in order to explore and explain the ideas aand implications of ubiquitous computing, sometimes called the "internet of things." Check out the whole set.

Please share your thoughts!

The nib cursor

2010-10-19T10:30:00.001-05:00

The nib cursor, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I love my iPad, but the finger-only interface has been a continuing frustration for me. As an artist and designer, I want to do things that I can easily do with a pen and paper, like write, scribble and sketch. But these are not things we typically do with our fingers, any more than we eat soup or salad with our fingers.

Apple apologists will say that you can sketch and write with the iPad, and indeed we can. Yes, and indeed we can also eat salad or even soup without utensils if it's absolutely necessary. But that's not ideal, is it? Over the years we've developed tools, like forks, spoons, knives and yes, pens, that make life easier. We should expect no less from our interface designers.

This morning I participated in a stimulating discussion on twitter with user experience designers @docbaty, @daveixd, @mojoguzzi and @fred_beecher that left me thinking -- could we solve this problem without changing the hardware? And indeed I think we can.

The problem that a pen solves (beyond carrying ink around) is that it gives the user the ability to "see where they are going." Using your finger to draw on the iPad, or even one of the many styli that are available, has the tendency to hide the point of the virtual "pen," thus hiding the path.

Now imagine an interface that allows you to use the natural gesture you use to write with a pen or pencil, and gives you a point that you can see. Suddenly you can see where you are going and the primary problem is solved.

One of the things that occurred to me this morning -- which led to this insight -- was that when Apple first "virtualized" the keyboard by adding it to the software interface instead of the hardware, there was a lot of initial resistance. I was one of those resisters. I couldn't imagine using a phone without a physical keyboard. But over time, I learned to use the virtual keyboard and now I appreciate the additional flexibility that this interface gives me: to have more screen or less as the case demands.

Why not do the same with the stylus? A "virtualized pen" would answer most of my gripes and over time I would probably come to love it. I might even stop carrying a pen and paper around. And that would be an interface I could fall in love with.

Anatomy of a smart thing

2010-10-12T18:32:00.002-05:00

Anatomy of a smart thing, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

In his book Smart Things, Mike Kuniavsky quotes a Scientific American article from 1991, where Xerox PARC's then CTO Mark Weiser laid out the vision for ubicomp:

"[Ubicomp is] the idea of integrating computers seamlessly into the world at large ... not simulating the world so much as enhancing the one that already exists ... [most of them] will be invisible in fact as well as in metaphor ... These machines and more will be connected in a ubiquitous network.

Today's design challenge, says Kuniavsky, is to create a practice of ubiquitous computing user experience design. Such a practice is by necessity cross-disciplinary, involving identity design (what makes the product or service memorable and unique), interface design (modes of functionality), industrial design (physicality), interaction design (how you can interact with it), information design (how it displays information), service design (how the service maintains consistency across many objects devices and experiences), and information architecture (organizing principles for the information).

That's a lot of D words! In other words it takes a team, and this will only increasingly be the case. The practice is changing quickly, and with the power to transform society comes great responsibility.

Check out the whole set on Flickr, and please share your thoughts in the comments section!

Metaphor

2010-10-11T14:15:00.001-05:00

Metaphor, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

In his book Smart Things, Mike Kuniavsky suggests metaphor as a tool for thinking through ubicomp designs and interactions. By mapping one category onto another we can discover new insights -- among other things, it's a way to trick the mind into seeing old things in new ways.

Organizational metaphors (ways of organizing services) include the factory, the public utility, parallel universes and so on.

Metaphors also help people understand new services by linking the new to the familiar. For example, RFID was first introduced as the next generation of the bar code, even though the two technologies had little in common.

Kuniavsky suggests that when exploring a new concept via metaphor, it pays to explore the dark side as well as optimistic scenarios to get a more well-rounded picture of the future system. How might your design be thwarted? How might the system be hijacked or co-opted for other uses?

Please share your thoughts!

Ubicomp Sketchbook

2010-10-11T14:14:00.001-05:00

Ubicomp Sketchbook, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

In a recent post titled Ubuquitous Service Design, Peter Morville raised some interesting questions about how we might design for a world where everything is, or potentially can be -- smart. A world where your refrigerator knows what you had for lunch and when the lettuce will be out of date. A world where your car gives you suggestions for getting better gas mileage or tells you a better way to get where you're going.

In a ubicomp (ubiquitous computing) world, what kinds of methods, and what kinds of tools, will designers use to think through a whole new set of design problems? The environment and the context of use become much more important. Devices and services become stakeholders in the process, communicating not only with users but with other products and processes over a complex and deeply intertwingled network.

How will this change our approaches to design and change? How will it change our lives, our cities, and our social relationships?

Peter and I are embarking on a new project we're calling Ubicomp Sketchbook to explore exactly these kinds of things. We hope you will enjoy the ride and also share your thoughts, sketches and ideas. We'll be using the hashtag #ubicompsketchbook for our explorations.

Nancy Duarte on her new book, Resonate

2010-10-11T11:35:00.002-05:00

Nancy Duarte is the founder of Duarte Design, one of the world’s leading presentation design companies. She just published a new book on storytelling for presentations, called resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences, which follows hot on the heels of her recent book slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, a critically-acclaimed book on presentation design. I recently had a chance to do a short interview with Nancy about her new book.

Q: Your recent book on presentation design, Slide:ology, was a runaway hit. What made you decide to follow that up with a book about storytelling?

A: When I wrote Slide:ology, I thought that the most pressing need in business communication was the visual display of information (slides). So I wrote Slide:ology which addresses that. Once I started to see the principles applied in organizations, the slides looked great but it was really the content that was a mess. Beautiful slides created to accompany disastrous content is like dressing up a pig. My new book Resonate deals with the pig. Slide:ology was easier for me to write. It was like capturing what my organization had done for 20 years. The material easily poured from my head. With Resonate, I needed to do more homework and research. Many books exist in business around story but not as applied to a presentation. So I studied literature, cinema and even rabbit-trailed around topics like psychology, philosophy and music. After many hours of study, a great book poured out—from my heart though, not my head.

Q: There’s an image in the book that resonated with me. It depicts a sailboat tacking into the wind, an image that represents the presenter’s challenge to move their ideas against the prevailing status quo. What’s the story behind this image? Can you remember how you came up with the idea?

A: It’s funny you’d ask that because I got emotionally attached to the concept myself. Presentations are persuasive which means you’re trying to move an audience from one place to the next. I wanted to find a metaphor that moves back-and-forth like the presentation form sparkline does yet propels forward. Sailing was the most obvious metaphor. When I first developed the presentation form I’d sketched the shape zig-zagged (and that’s where I came up with the idea) instead of pumpkin-toothed as it is today:

I’d always envisioned the sparkline as moving back and forth as a zig zag but it was confusing so I changed the sparkline to pumpkin-tooth shaped, so the sailboat had to be used for a different metaphor. One of the guys on my content team tied in the concept of wind resistance as a parallel for audience resistance. Interestingly, when a sailboat is sailing against the wind, if the sails are set correctly to capture the wind resistance, a physics phenomenon happens and the boat can sail faster than the wind itself. That can happen with a presentation. Insert the ways your audience might resist and you’ll get them to adopt your side quicker.

Q: You describe the book as, at least in part, a research project. What process did you follow when writing the book? How did it work for you? Would you do it the same way next time?

A: My office was a mess while I worked on this book. I had books and printouts scattered all over the floor and every surface of my office. Plus I had hundreds of pages taped up on the walls. I was very mad-professor-like (see video below):

Because the book covers fundamental literature principles, I felt like I needed to study many topics deeply to make sure it was accurate and to avoid it getting challenged by communication professionals who’ve studied speeches for years. So I wanted to dig very deep on each into the subject matter to make sure I covered all my bases which took a ton of time. Honestly, it feels like a huge doctoral project. I used a lot of paper during this process, unfortunately. I’m very tactile and wrote and highlighted on paper. As I studied and read, various themes started to surface. I would binder-clip packets of my research together by topic and make a cover page of bright blue paper:

I built the first pass of the outline in PowerPoint. Each spread of the book has one title (message) and supporting text and graphics. Similar to a slide. So I print and re-print my deck. Posted, rearranged and re-posted it on my wall until the structure was sound. It was just like how we used 3x5 cards to write papers in college. I enjoyed my creative process. Many people thought it looked chaotic but I had a blast. I would definitely use the same creative process.

Q: You talk a lot about the presenter as mentor, like Yoda or Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid, the “guide on the side” who helps audiences come to conclusions on their own. Yet presenters often are expected to take the role of “sage on the stage,” the center of attention. It’s hard to picture Yoda or Mr. Miyagi on stage giving a dramatic presentation. How do you suggest that presenters can reconcile these two, seemingly contradictory, ideas?

A: That’s a good insight, Dave. The reference to mentor doesn’t dictate that they are low energy and are boring on the stage. I’m trying to get presenters to take on a change in mindset and a new stance in their role. The audience determines whether your idea is successful and applied, so they are the hero of your idea. The role of the mentor in movies and mythology is to bring a magical gift, tool or ability to get the hero unstuck. When was the last time you sat through a presentation and felt you received any of that? Besides, if Yoda needed to deliver a formal presentation he would be awe-inspiring I’m sure.

Q: You spend a lot of time talking about using sticky notes to map out presentations. Why do you think this is important?

A: Sticky notes work great for generating ideas, filtering them down and then arranging and rearranging them until the concept and structure are sound. Great structure plays a critical role in how digestible and insightful your findings are.

Q: Design geek question: Both Slide:ology and Resonate are large-format books packed with full-color images. And they’re square in shape! You don’t see square books very often. What made you choose this particular design for your books?

A: I envisioned both my books as reference books that people would want to lay open on their desk. Traditional 5x7 books don’t lay flat like that. Since I work in presentations all day, the open spread of the square books feels more similar to a slide-format and I’m stuck in a groove of writing one complete thought per page. The down-side of the wider format is that airport bookstores are hesitant to carry the book because it takes up too much shelf space. Bummer.

Q: Has your book-writing journey resulted in any learning that changed the way you approach your work? If so, what did you learn and how has it changed your work?

A: If you had told me three years ago that I would write books and enjoy it, I would laughed and called you crazy. Getting a book done (especially a visual book) takes determination and commitment. So it takes a fire in your belly and daily (and nightly and weekendly) discipline to complete a book. I discovered a few things about myself along the way. I found my writing sweet-spot. I always thought I was a night person, but come to find out I get my best work done between 5 a.m. and noon. Now I block every morning to get my brain-work done. In addition to a new way of working, I also discovered that I’m a systems thinker. I get pretty energized when I find patterns and connections that no one has seen before.

Q: If there’s one thing you hope people will take away from Resonate, what would that be?

A: I think that everyone is capable of changing the world (maybe not the entire world but at least their own world). Some of the greatest ideas have remained concealed because someone wasn’t brave enough or committed enough to communicate it well. I’m hoping that Resonate gives them a new mindset and guidance to communicate their ideas well so they’re adopted and make the world a better place.

If you want to buy either book I've made handy links for you right here. Highly recommended!

If you would like to see more interviews like this please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks!

Sneak peek at my upcoming workshop at UI15

2010-09-27T17:46:00.000-05:00

Here's a sneak peek at my upcoming workshop "Visual Thinking for User Experience" which I'll be giving at UI15 (Boston, Nov. 8-10).

Description: New workshop on effectively communicating design ideas Wireframes don’t help us with the Why, only the What of our designs. Dave’s simple sketching techniques are powerful tools for communicating your design's rationale. You’ll learn solid strategies for visualizing your ideas, which will help you identify issues while creating great new experiences.

I hope you like it! If it sparks any thoughts please leave a comment.

How to draw a robot. Or, what I do when nobody is watching.

2010-09-27T12:29:00.000-05:00

XPLANE joins Dachis Group

2010-04-26T09:00:00.009-05:00

I have a big announcement to make today.

Effective this morning, XPLANE is joining the Dachis Group, the world’s leading social business consultancy, as a wholly-owned subsidiary. I want to take a moment to share what this means for XPLANE and our customers, and why I am excited about it.

Initially, the only change employees and customers will notice is the Dachis Group logo on our home page. XPLANE will continue to serve customers just as we have for the past 15 years. If you’re a customer, partner or employee, you probably won’t notice any differences at first. But joining the Dachis Group is a strategic move for our company and for our customers. Here’s why I am excited about it:

First, Dachis Group is backed by Austin Ventures to the tune of $50 million. This gives us the financial ability to scale so we can serve a growing and global customer base. The combined Dachis Group now has over 100 employees, with offices in seven cities and five countries.

Second, the Dachis Group is scooping up the best and brightest teams in social technology. Recent acquisitions include Hinchcliffe & Company, headed by Enterprise 2.0 guru Dion Hinchcliffe; Headshift, a social-business technology and strategy consultancy; and the 2.0 Adoption Council, a peer group of managers in large enterprises that are pioneering the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and practices.

Third, the Dachis vision for Social Business Design is a sound and compelling one. They understand that social business is a fundamental shift not only in technology but in society and the fundamental ways that we do our work. Their vision for business transformation involves all aspects of business, from employees to partners to customers, from organizational culture to business systems to technology.

Fourth, CEO Jeff Dachis has a proven track record growing best-of breed internet consultancies. As co-founder of Razorfish, he grew that company into a global firm which successfully navigated the dot-bomb crisis and eventually its parent company sold to Microsoft for $6 billion. Now owned by Publicis, Razorfish is one of the world’s largest interactive agencies, with more than 2,000 employees and offices all over the world.

As a part of the Dachis group, XPLANE will be better financed and more strategically positioned than we have been in the past, so we’ll be able to grow faster and serve our customers better.

This move is also strategic for our offerings: As a visual thinking company, XPLANE has the ability to help our customers transform their businesses. Our customers will attest to that. Like any technology, visual thinking, and the clarity it provides, can accelerate growth and offer strategic advantage. But visual thinking, although powerful, is less imperative than social business.

For the last 15 years, the biggest thing that businesses needed to figure out was how to transition onto the web and into an internet economy. This was a disruptive change, a huge shift. Many companies perished and many fortunes were made. The risks and rewards were, and will continue to be, great.

In the next 15 years, the most significant change that business will undertake is the transition to social technologies. In ten years you’ll be a social business, or you’ll be out of business.

Why do I say that? It's pretty simple. All you need to do is ask yourself one question: Is word-of-mouth important to your business success? If so, you need to begin the transformation to being a social business.

There are a few things I can say confidently; things in business we can be certain about:

Business success has always relied heavily on social networks and networking. Always has, always will.
If you are early to recognize the potential of new technologies and build them into your business, you will gain competitive advantage and potentially claim new markets .
The core of social technologies is that they make word-of-mouth conversations tangible, sharable and trackable. Do you think this kind of technology might drive real business results? I do. Word-of-mouth is the most trusted source of information, wisdom, references and referrals.
You can’t opt out of social business, any more than you could opt out of the internet. You are part of the word-of-mouth conversation whether you participate or not. This means the transition to social is imperative.

New technologies bring change and disrupt markets. The more transformational the technology, the more massive the change and disruption. And social media has transformed life as we know it. Facebook has more users than the USA has people, and it’s growing at a rate of more than half a million people per day.

We have seen over and over that when it comes to disruptive technologies, the initial trends are set by individuals and small teams, and are later adopted by the bigger companies. Microcomputers, blogs, email, file-sharing, web services and voice-over-IP were all pioneered by small teams. Today, Twitter and Facebook are setting the trends. Individuals and small teams are using these tools now, and the corporate world is certain to follow.

But adoption of new technologies is not simple or easy, and the bigger the enterprise the harder it gets. Here are a few of the opportunities and threats you will have to navigate if you want to socially calibrate your business:

Customer service
Opportunity: If you’re a social business, you will respond faster to customer issues and thereby improve your customer relationships. You’ll have better product and service quality because you’ll have better feedback loops. You will simply understand your customers better.

Threat: If you opt out of social business, your competition will know more about your customer’s complaints than you do. They will swoop in and steal your customers before you know what hit you. They’ll be in a position to steer the all-important word-of-mouth conversation away from you and toward themselves. You’ll respond to customer concerns too slowly or too late.

Public relations
Opportunity: You’ll be continuously aware of the word-of-mouth conversation and how it affects you. Your social channels will serve as an early-warning system, enabling you to be more proactive and put out more fires before they start.

Threat: You’ll be surprised by a new trend because you’re not monitoring the social sphere. By the time you notice a PR fire it’ll be raging out of control and you’ll be operating in crisis mode.

Markets and marketing
Opportunity: You’ll be tracking the trend-setters and influencers and you’ll know how their ideas spread through the social network. You’ll know who generates recommendations and referrals – who drives the real growth in emerging markets – and you’ll know how they do it.

Threat: You’ll watch competitors or new entrants steal away your customers, and by the time you figure out what’s going on it’ll be too late.

Intellectual capital
Opportunity: Finally there’s a way to deliver on the promise of knowledge management – a way to capture the wisdom, ideas and genius of your employees – the information that’s contained in the heads of the people who walk out the door every day. I’m talking about the information that makes your business effective, even though it’s not written down in any book, manual or report. If you opt in to social business you’ll know who the experts are, and their peers will know how to find them and tap their expertise. You’ll know how information really flows through your organization – not the fiction of the org chart but the real social network that keeps things going. You’ll be able to cut meeting time in half by sharing routine information more effectively.

Threat: Your best and most brilliant employees will walk out the door and you won’t even know the value that you are losing. They will want to further their careers, so they’ll head for a more networked company where they can be more effective.

Is social media a fad? I’ll let this video answer that question:

Social business is like the internet or any other disruptive technology. The question isn't whether to do it or not: the question is whether you're going to be early or late. We decided to be early, and there's no turning back.

Knowledge Games talk from the Interaction 10 conference

2010-03-02T09:38:00.003-06:00

Dave Gray-Knowledge Games: A Grammar for Creativity and Innovation from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo.

The design philosophy of the AK-47

2010-02-15T12:46:00.002-06:00

The design philosophy of the AK-47, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

In a recent roundup of thoughts from the Interaction 10 conference, Jan-Cristoph Zoels wrote:

"Unfortunately [Dave Gray] illustrated his engaging talk with a glorification of the AK47 as a ‘powerful tool of change’. His agnostic design philosophy hides an ethical ambivalence and repositions designers as hired hands of industry who do whatever is needed – even weapons of mass destruction. Can’t we find ethical examples which enable people, but don’t kill?"

Jan missed the point of my AK-47 example. There's nothing agnostic about my design philosophy -- a philosophy I share with Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47. The design philosophy is this:

Don't design for a perfect world, because the world isn't perfect. Design simple things that are rugged, reliable, simple and easy to use; things that work even when conditions are chaotic; things that work even when they are mostly broken.

The AK-47 is a successful weapon because it was designed to work when the world is falling apart around you. When an AK-47 is wet, when it is clogged with mud, sand or snow, it will still work, in conditions where many more precise and accurate weapons will fail.

That's not an agnostic design philosophy, it's a philosophy that is deeply rooted in fundamentals. It's a philosophy that requires a designer to prize simplicity and exhibit strength of purpose; that emphasizes ease-of-use and reliability over feature-richness and perfection.

Now, we can also argue about ethical ambivalence -- whether it's ethical to design a weapon. This is an age-old and probably unresolvable argument. The intent of my talk was to demonstrate the design philosophy in a memorable and dramatic way by telling the true story of one designer.

Mikhail Kalashnikov designed the AK-47 because his homeland had been invaded by an enemy with superior weapons. He wasn't a "hired hand of an industry, doing whatever was needed." He was a tank mechanic who saw fellow soldiers and civilians gunned down and wanted to ensure that it would never happen again.

If Kalashnikov had lived in the west he would be a rich man today (Yes, he’s still alive, about 90 years old). But he grew up in a communist state, so he’s now a national hero who lives on a government pension.

Mikhail Kalashnikov is on record as saying that he would have preferred to have designed something more useful, for example, a lawn mower. But his country was invaded, he was severely wounded and in his hospital bed, his thoughts turned to weaponry. Can we really blame him? It's hard to see him as a profit-seeker or a "hired hand of industry."

He designed a weapon with the intention of repelling invaders, and in fact the AK-47 has to be seen as one of the most successful weapons of all time in this regard. Since he designed it in 1947, Kalashnikov’s weapon has enabled other people to defend their homelands from invaders, even superpowers: It helped the Vietcong drive American troops out of Vietnam, and it helped the Mujahideen drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan.

Are there other examples I could have used to make my point? I am sure there are. But as a person who has spoken at many conferences, and also as a person who has sat through many polite-but-boring talks, I choose to make my points as dramatically, engagingly and entertainingly as possible. As a history buff, the story of Mikhail Kalashnikov captivated me, and I was sure it would do the same for others if I could tell it compellingly. When I want to make an important point, I do it with drama, because that’s what people remember. There’s a reason that war movies are more popular than design documentaries.

I would rather stir up a bit of controversy than subject an audience to slow, agonizing death with PowerPoint bullet points. And if you are speaking and I am in the audience, I hope you will do the same for me.

Values, motivation and business

2009-12-23T15:40:00.001-06:00

I got these questions in an email interview by Garrick Gibson recently, and, since I get asked these things fairly often, I thought I would post my answers here.

1) What do you value most about what you are doing in your profession?

2) Name 3 of the most important actions taken to start your business?

3) How much of your personal values played a role in starting and operating your business?
How do these values show up in your business?

Here are the answers I gave Garrick:

Q: What do you value most about what you are doing in your profession?

I love that I can walk into a chaotic situation and help people make sense of it so they can make better decisions. It makes me feel useful and appreciated when people recognize and reward that.

Q: Name 3 of the most important actions taken to start your business?

1. When I quit smoking it made me realize that I could do anything when I set my mind to it, no matter how difficult it might seem. So, strange as it may sound, the first and most important step was quitting smoking -- it had nothing to do with business and everything to do with building my confidence.

2. Quitting my journalism job to take a much lower-paying job as a university professor. The importance of that step was that I was walking into a position with a definite end point. The position was a one-year contract, renewable up to a maximum of three years, so just as if I were an elected official, my job had a term limit. This set the clock ticking. It gave me a deadline, so to speak.

3. Expanding my world view. I felt strongly that to be successful in business I needed to understand all aspects, so I read voraciously about marketing, sales, strategy and finance. I also asked people who I deemed successful what drove their success. One of them once said to me "Nothing happens till somebody sells something." I took that to heart.

An understanding of sales was key to the success of my business. Turns out the biggest secrets of successful selling are great listening skills and an ability to turn understanding and empathy into action and results. These are great skills for anybody to learn, no matter what they plan to do.

Q: How much of your personal values plays a role in starting & operating of your business?

Personal values are huge. I believe that better clarity and understanding, in the long run, is better for the world. I feel that at XPLANE we are doing something good.

Q: How do these values show up in your business?

I felt strongly enough about company values that I worked with the team to create a culture map which we use to remain focused on who we want to be. You can see the culture map here.

We use this map as a compass to guide our actions and decisions. It turns out to be most useful with the more difficult decisions, not because it gives the answers but because it helps us ask the right questions.

Thanks Garrick, for asking the thoughtful questions that generated this post. thanks to you, reader, for reading it. I'd be very interested to hear how you would answer these questions.

Please leave a comment and answer Garrick's three questions, or just tell us about your values. How do they motivate you in your business endeavors?

Excerpt, OSS SabotageManual

2009-12-03T12:15:00.001-06:00

ExcerptOSSSabotageManual, originally uploaded by @bfchirpy.

Thanks @bfchirpy for this little gem. How many of us have engaged in one or another of these activities over the years, without thinking of the long-term damage we were causing to the health of an organization we probably joined voluntarily?

Complicated vs. complex

2009-11-25T09:48:00.001-06:00

When you make the complicated simple, you make it better. But when you make the complex simple, you make it wrong.

Empathy mapping

2009-11-12T18:22:00.001-06:00

Empathy map, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Just posted over on the Knowledge Games blog about Empathy mapping. Enjoy!

Mr. Fixit and the power of packaging

2009-10-27T14:33:00.001-05:00

Mr. Fixit, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Reason is a dangerous, two-edged sword. It can be seen as Newtonian thinking in a quantum world; a cause-and-effect approach in a world that's more complex than that. In relation to that concept I'd like to make two points, one about humanity and the other about reason.

First, humanity:

The idea that we are somehow logical, rational or reasonable creatures is a broadly accepted one, yet under close examination it appears completely ridiculous. Yes we are capable of using reason as a tool, but more often than not we ignore what reason tells us and tend to favor other biases, especially cognitive biases. We forget that we are not designed for reason so much as propagation and survival. Take a look at classical game theory, which presupposes that people will act in their own rational self-interest. Turns out that predictions you make based on this assumption go radically wrong. We make decisions based on other factors such as fear, doubt, paranoia, desire, greed, even altruism. Any sales or marketing person can tell you as much from personal experience. The best products don't win: Coke failed the taste test and Microsoft isn't the best operating system. This is not a bad thing -- our non-rational decision-making processes tend to work very well and protect us from harm in a lot of cases. It's just that there are deep blind spots that may actually drive us to extinction, which I think is what concerns many of us.

Now, reason:

Reason is the best tool that we know of for overcoming our blind spots. I use the word tool for a reason here: A tool is something that's designed for a specific purpose and has certain ideas (about its use) built into it. A hammer sees everything as a nail, a saw wants to cut, etc. Reason, and the empirical method, can be seen as a set of tools based on a theory about the world: that everything is, or potentially can be, understood in rational terms. Yes, the current state of the tool is primitive when it comes to understanding complex relationships and ecosystems, but we are making progress. The quantum world, to make an example, was not discovered by mystics, it was discovered by physicists using empirical techniques. Complexity theory is making great strides toward understanding how nonlinear systems and complex interactions work. Brain science is advancing rapidly these days and helping us make similar strides toward understanding the fallibilities of our senses and cognitive functions. So let's not give up on reason.

At the same time let's be sure to understand its limitations. Philosopher of Science Paul Feyerabend advocated a separation of science and state to parallel the separation of church and state. Science, he thought, has enough power, pride and hubris to rival any social structure, religion or philosophy that opposes it. I might not go so far but I do think we need to remember that reason and empiricism are tools, and like any tools, they have their limitations. Reason cannot tell the carpenter what to build or what not to build, or why. Science and technology may influence destiny but they cannot tell us who we are or where we need to go. They cannot shape a vision or offer moral guidance. Reason can't keep a family together or avoid conflict within a community.

This gets to my main thesis here, which is that reason must be understood in context. I happen to like simple rules such as

First do no harm.
Seek to first to understand, then to be understood.
Leave no trace.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you; and its corrollary: only if they want that!

Etc.

Reason is super-effective but also alien to many people who are following the powerful survival-cues of their biological brains, and one thing that seems to be true over time is that the simple memes like those above appeal to the intuitive common sense of the common mind. To be clear: I'm not arguing against reason but for better marketing of it!

Can we package the idea of a rational world in simple terms? Can we employ the simplicity of Haiku for example?

The great philosophical and religious leaders were able to convey their messages in short simple stories and sayings. Why not reason?

Designing a narrative with index cards

2009-09-08T09:03:00.003-05:00

Working on the workshop, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I recently got an email from a teacher who wanted to know how she could help her students develop better presentations. I've been meaning to write down my method for awhile now and rather than write one email I thought I'd put it into a blog post.

When I develop presentations I like to use index cards to sort through ideas. Sometimes I use a bottom-up approach, sorting and sifting through myriad ideas until the best ones float to the top. Other times I use a top-down approach, starting with the audience and their interests, and building a structure underneath that. More often it’s a combination of the two approaches – I start top-down, with an audience and what I think will interest them. Then I start to develop ideas, but those ideas lead to other ideas and soon I have too many thoughts, after which I need to do some bottom-up sifting to let the best ideas emerge.

The image above is the sorting exercise I went through to develop a workshop I gave in Toronto in 2006. The approach borrows heavily from the card sorting method used in software design.

TOP-DOWN APPROACH

This is best when you know who you’re presenting to and what they want to know. If you don’t know where to start this is probably the best way to begin.

1. Start by thinking about your target audience and what they are interested in. It helps to imagine a real person that you know that fits the profile.

2. Now, brainstorm a list of questions that you think they might be likely to ask you about the topic in question. Write down one question per index card.

3. Now, try to sort the questions into a sequence that makes sense. Probably this means the most basic questions (such as “What is it?”) at the beginning, and the more action-oriented questions (Such as “how can I apply it?”) toward the end. Now you can look at the questions and see if they form a meaningful sequence that, say, introduces a topic, develops it, and reaches a conclusion. At this point you should have a sequence of cards running from left to right.

4. Now, under each question card, you can start to develop your “answer” cards – slides that will answer the question.

BOTTOM-UP APPROACH

This is best when you have a lot of ideas to sort through but don’t know how to weave them together yet. If you know what you want to talk about you might want to start here.

1. Write down as many ideas on a topic as you can – all the elements that might be useful as part of a presentation. Write down one thought or idea per index card. I often like to sketch on the card as well, thinking about how I might illustrate the concept.

2. Sort the cards into piles that represent ideas that “feel like they belong together.”

3. Name each pile and create a “title card” for each group. Each title card now represents a group of related ideas that might form a section of your presentation.

4. Now, try to arrange the title cards into a meaningful sequence – put the cards into a row. This forms the basis of the narrative thread.

5. Under each title card, you can now create a “column” of index cards with the ideas that form the main points for each section.

6. Now, identify gaps in the story, eliminate redundancies and irrelevant information, and go from there.

As I said, usually I work with a hybrid of the two approaches. It’s much like a conversation, where one person’s thoughts influence the next person’s ideas. Moving back and forth between what the audience wants to hear (the “top”) and what I want to say (the “bottom”) helps me develop a synthesis that integrates my most valuable knowledge with what people are really interested in hearing.

I’m very interested in hearing your thoughts on this approach, and I’d love to hear about your experiences using this or similar approaches in your work. So be a mensch and leave a comment!

Bitching about work means you like it the way it is

2009-08-25T09:09:00.001-05:00

Bitching about work means you like it the way it is, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

It sounds counterintuitive, but when you bitch about work you are only feeding the problems you talk about.

Bitching about work is like scratching an itch -- it may make you feel better in the short run, but in the long term you are only making it worse.

When you bitch about work you keep your issues and concerns in the dark, as far as your organization is concerned. You also feed negative feelings, divisiveness and cliquishness in your workplace, which makes the office unpleasant and generally brings everybody down.

By raising your issues appropriately, in a public forum, you bring them to light, which allows them to be discussed and addressed. Even if you don't agree with the outcome, at least you have been heard and your opinion is known.

There are two ways to solve a work situation you don't like: Change the situation or find another job. By bitching in private you're not doing anything to change the situation, and in addition you're making the workplace less fun for everybody.

By making your concerns public you have a chance to address them, and even if you don't get what you want, you can make the decision to live with it or move to another job.

The third alternative, staying in a job you hate, is like staying in an abusive relationship. It only reinforces negative behavior all around.

Your relationship with your co-workers is like any other social relationship. It's not likely to ever be perfect, but focusing on the positive will generate more positive feelings and results, while focusing on the negative will only make things worse.

So next time you have the urge to scratch that itch, don't tell yourself it's okay because you're "only venting." Ask yourself if it's worth the damage you'll cause.

Toward a theory of information relativity

2009-06-29T17:39:00.003-05:00

Visual thinking, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

People often ask me how to visualize information. They ask things like “How can I visualize my industry ecosystem?” or “How can I visualize how my product works.” My first instinct is to try and back them up a bit. This is because they are already defining their project in terms of an answer or solution, and before you can deliver an answer you need to know the question. Getting the question right is the most important component in information design, and it’s the most common point where information design goes wrong.

This is because information is always relative. Always. Before you can undertake any kind of visualization exercise, you need to know what question you want to answer, and for whom. A look at the history of information will confirm this point.

Science is a process by which we attempt to compare our perceptions with something we call “reality” but in fact reality is something we can never really know for sure. Like the flickering shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave, reality is something we can only see dimly, because it’s distorted by our perceptions and beliefs. Every observation and fact has a margin of error, which is directly related to the observer’s background, beliefs, culture and limitations. It is written in the Talmud, “We see things not as they are, but as we are.”¹

By beginning with an audience and a question you give yourself a focusing device. Like a flashlight, the audience and question will illuminate the information that’s relevant to your goal, while leaving the rest in the dark. Good information design is as much about what you leave out as what you put in.

What to put in: Information that’s relevant to your target audience, and that answers a real question that they have. What to leave out: Everything else. The best rule of thumb is “When in doubt, leave it out.”

So if you want to create a visual in order to explain something, ask yourself the following questions first:

“Who am I explaining it to?”
“What do I want them to do?”

At XPLANE we call this the WHODO, and it’s a required input to any project we undertake. Once you understand the WHO (your audience) you will have a sense of their level of existing knowledge of the subject.

For example if you are explaining scientific or technical information to engineers or scientists you can assume a high level of sophistication and readiness. Based on the cultural expectations in science and engineering fields, you can also assume a high level of skepticism and a need for evidence and proof.

Explaining the same information to a group of executives, or salespeople, would be a completely different exercise. You can expect that they will have a different set of questions and probably will be more focused on practical applications and will get impatient with scientific or technical explanations.

Thus, the same information will need to be presented very differently based on the audience that you are talking to.

Understanding the audience is only part of the equation. The other half of the WHODO is DO. Before you can undertake any explanatory task you need to know what outcome you expect. Describing this as a change in understanding is not enough. Understanding is difficult to observe. People often will say they understand something just to get you out of their hair.

People will also believe that they understand something when they don’t really understand it. Have you ever left a meeting where everyone seemed to be in agreement, yet their later actions made it clear that they didn’t agree after all? It’s common to see nodding heads in a room when people don’t agree – they think they agree but in reality they don’t. This is because when an explanation is sufficiently vague, people are free to believe what they want to believe. Politicians often use this rhetorical principle to great effect. Words like “freedom, justice and fairness” mean different things to different people. Vague explanations are common in business, and they can give the illusion of agreement. But they don’t get results.

Here’s the key: When people understand things differently, they do things differently. What they say is less revelatory than what they do. So if you want to build a rock-solid explanation, focus on what you want people to do. If they understand what you are saying, what changes in behavior would you expect to see?

Once you have defined your WHODO, next you need to anticipate the questions they will ask. This again will depend on your audience and the information they will need to make a decision. Part of this is also cultural. Scientists will want to see scientific evidence. They will want technical explanations and probably a lot of detailed analysis. Busy executives may want different kinds of proof, such as what customers are buying and what competitors are doing. They will also be less generous with their time and expect you to get quickly to the point.

But you don’t have to go in cold. If you understand the mind of your audience, you will be able to generate a list of questions that they are likely to ask.

Once you have defined your WHODO and generated a list of questions, you can start thinking about how to visualize the information. Will they need a broad overview or detailed charts and specifications? Will they need to see the value to the customer, or the technical operational details?

In the fields of information science and knowledge management there is a model known as the Data Information Knowledge Wisdom Hierarchy, or DIKW for short. This has become a standard for defining the terms and how they relate to each other.² Here’s how defines the hierarchy:

Data has no particular significance beyond representation. It consists of symbols that stand for objects, events or their properties. Data is a collection of facts³ – also called “know-nothing”⁴ to reinforce the point that data, by itself is dumb; it has no meaning.

Information is data that has been organized so that it is useful, usually because of relational connections – also called “know-what.” Information answers questions like who, what, where, when and how many.

Knowledge is information that has been integrated into the mind, memory and body, such that it can be applied to doing and making things, also called “know-how.” Knowledge is usually acquired through experience, or through stories about other people’s experiences.

Wisdom is the ability to perceive value, make judgments, and evaluate long-term consequences. Russell Ackoff describes the difference between knowledge and wisdom as the difference between doing things right and doing the right thing. Wisdom requires values, and values are perhaps the most relative thing of all.

So I propose the beginnings of a theory of information relativity:

1. All information is relative, and it’s always relative: relative to the observer and the observer’s point of view; relative to the culture and its values; relative to the situation; relative to what has come before, and to what will come next.

2. The value of information is always relative because it is directly related to it’s usefulness, which depends on the user, the context and the situation.

3. Information design must therefore be driven by the context within which it will be experienced. Information design must serve the needs of real human beings doing real things. Information wants to be used.

At its heart, information design is about change. It’s about increasing the amount of useful information in the world. Good information design should result in changes to understanding – increases in knowledge and wisdom – which can be directly measured by observable changes in human behavior.

Notes:

1. Also attributed to John Milton, H.M. Tomlinson, Anais Nin and others.

2. Harlan Cleveland first wrote about the DIKW hierarchy in a December, 1982 article “Information as Resource” in The Futurist, citing inspiration from the following lines written by T.S. Eliot:

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

~T.S. Eliot, The Rock, 1934

3. Even the things we think of as facts are relative to the observer and a particular point of view. The problem of facts is as old as science itself and is still unresolved. See “Free the Facts” by Dave Gray, 2009.

4. Milan Zeleny, “Management Support Systems: Toward Integrated Knowledge Management,” Human Systems Management 7, no 1, 1987.

Yuri Engelhardt's notebook

2009-06-17T10:14:00.002-05:00

Yuri Engelhardt's notebook, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Yuri Engelhardt's notes, taken when he was working on The Language of Graphics. Click here for a closer look.

Reader interaction with Marks and Meaning

2009-04-28T16:59:00.001-05:00

Opa!, originally uploaded by Edward Vielmetti.

Marks and Meaning is designed to encourage readers to interact with the book in various ways, and I have been thrilled to see the various ways people have chosen to do that. Ed Vielmetti has peppered his copy with sticky notes. The image above is from his copy of version zero.

For more images like this check out the Marks and Meaning photo pool.

Visual note-taking workshop

2009-04-27T13:35:00.002-05:00

visual note-taking conference call notes, originally uploaded by Austin Kleon.

I'm very excited to announce that three of my favorite visual thinkers -- Sunni Brown, Mike Rohde and Austin Kleon -- will be delivering a workshop on visual note-taking on Tuesday, May 12.

The image above are some visual notes that Austin Kleon took during one of the conference calls as we planned the workshop. This is a chance to learn from some people who are truly masters at what they do. Your notes and whiteboard scrawls will never be the same!

More about the workshop:

Ever since Leonardo put pen to paper, visual note-taking has been a route to improve the quality of your thinking, make information more memorable, and make your ideas easier to share with others. Read more.

Guiding principles for VizThink

2009-04-18T10:12:00.001-05:00

Guiding principles for VizThink, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Some of you may have noticed that I have been knocking on a lot of doors lately, asking people to participate in the future of VizThink in one way or another.

One of the questions I have heard pretty frequently is "What are Vizthink's guiding principles?" and "What is the vision/mission for VizThink?'

To try to answer these questions we have created a draft document with the help of some of our members. I have posted the current draft on the VizThink forums, here.

There is no charge to participate in the forums, although you must register to post.

Thanks in advance for your feedback -- and please, share your thoughts!

Marks and Meaning, v. 0.5

2009-04-16T13:06:00.001-05:00

Marks and Meaning, v. 0.5, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Just released version 0.5 of my unbook, Marks and Meaning. You can buy a copy here. Read the warning label!

The Demon-Haunted World

2009-04-02T07:25:00.001-05:00

A beautiful and haunting story about the future of cities by Matt Jones.

The Demon-Haunted World

View more documents from Matt Jones.

Unbook download

2009-03-05T09:59:00.001-06:00

For those who wanted Marks and Meaning as a download, it's now available for $9.95 here. Tell your friends!

Design Lively Elearning with Action Mapping

2009-03-03T17:43:00.001-06:00

This presentation lays out a very interesting, and, I suspect, very effective, method for developing e-learning aimed at getting results for your business.

Design Lively Elearning with Action Mapping

View more presentations from Cathy Moore. (tags: concept mapping instructional design)

The unbook movement

2009-02-18T05:34:00.012-06:00

As some of you know I have been keenly interested in a movement, started by Jay Cross, called the unbook. I have gotten some questions about how the unbook differs from a traditional book, so I thought I would answer them here.

The driving forces behind the movement are the acceleration of business change and the inability of traditional publishing to keep up. With new technologies such as print-on-demand and online marketplaces, authors can now publish books, in both electronic and print formats, at the push of a button. The unbook, due to these factors, operates in a fundamentally different way than the traditional book.

A traditional book is released in editions. When a work is revised or updated, a new edition is released. These revised or updated editions usually offer small, incremental changes, such as a new preface or introduction, a new chapter, or small changes to the content.

An unbook is more like software:

1. An unbook is never finished, but rather continually updated, based on feedback from users andtheir evolving needs.

2. An unbook is released in versions. As in open source software, version 1.0 of an unbook is a significant milestone, indicating that it is stable and reliable enough for use by the general public. The significance of a new release is indicated by the size of the gap: For example, the difference between 1.1 and 1.1.3 is minor, while the difference between 1.1 and 2.0 is major.

3. An unbook is supported by a community of users who share their experiences and best practices with each other, and help each other troubleshoot problems encountered in their practice areas. An unbook’s community is a very real part of the unbook’s development team.

I have published an unbook, Marks and Meaning, to catalogue my continuing efforts in the field of visual thinking and information design, and to develop a user community focused on that discipline.

An unbook is mindware: software for the mind: And in the case of Marks and Meaning, my hope and intent is to develop not just software, but an operating system which improves on our current thinking models and makes our minds more useful and usable.

In the same way that graphical user interfaces (GUIs) improved the usability of computing devices, I hope, with your help, to develop a graphical operating system for the mind.
The field of information design is developing so rapidly that I believe an unbook is the only way to do this.

I believe that the unbook form has real potential, especially for emerging disciplines like information design, such as user experience design, agile software development, social media, and knowledge management, as well as established disciplines which are undergoing significant change (finance? government?).

To support these efforts, Jay and I have set up a website to support the unbook movement and provide a comprehensive catalogue of available titles. Please take a moment to visit theunbook.com and leave us a note! And if you are working on an unbook or plan to start one, let us know so we can add it to the uncatalogue.

Comments

2009-02-03T15:14:00.002-06:00

I accidentally deleted some recent comments while trying to delete some spam. Unfortunately Blogger doesn't let you "undo" that particular operation. If you commented recently, and your comment didn't show up, I am very sorry. If you re-post your comments I promise they'll go through this time (unless you're a spammer!:).

Why you need to go to VizThink 09

2009-01-26T10:48:00.004-06:00

Dave Davison sketches, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

VizThink, for those who haven’t heard of it, is a global community of visual thinkers that I helped to launch in 2007. The community was formed in recognition of a broad and emerging trend that offers a new path to innovation in business thinking.

VizThink is very different than other conferences in several ways:

VizThink is about differences: Most conferences try to create a space for like-minded people to gather and learn from each other. VizThink is exactly the opposite. It's a conference about differences. It attempts to cast the widest possible net of people and disciplines that stand to gain from visual thinking.

Why would you want to explore differences? One of the greatest strengths of visual thinking is its ability to connect disparate points of view, to build bridges that cross disciplines and connect ideas that might otherwise never be connected. The one thing that connects the VizThink community is that they are innovators who share an interest in visual thinking; who know that looking outside your own field is necessary if you want to innovate.

VizThink is about innovation: The connective power of visualization is one of the reasons you'll find visual thinking at the core of innovation and discovery.

Is your industry undergoing rapid change? Are you stuck in a business or an industry rut? Do you need truly new ways to approach or think about your business? If so then VizThink is for you.

Do you want to learn how people are using visual thinking today, in a wide variety of fields and disciplines, to navigate change and grow their businesses? If so, then VizThink is for you.
At VizThink you will find computer scientists, developers and engineers. You will find project managers, business executives, researchers and strategists. You will find marketers, salespeople, social media experts, educators, psychologists.

You’ll find a wide range of industries, from non-profits to consumer goods, technology, health care, government and education.

VizThink is about design: Yes, you will find designers at VizThink, and people who care about design. Design with a capital “D.” Design as a path to business advantage. Design for world-changing. Design as a method for growth and transformation.

You’ll find user experience designers, product designers, software designers, information designers, industrial designers, web designers, instructional designers, map designers, form designers, e-learning designers, presentation designers and more.

VizThink is about new voices: In January of 2008, Dan Roam’s presentation at VizThink launched a year-long book tour for his first book, the breakaway hit Back of the Napkin, named #1 business book of the year by both Business Week and Fast Company.

Nancy Duarte also presented at VizThink in January of 2008. In September she also launched her first book, Slide:ology, which Prezentation Zen master Garr Reynolds called “My favorite presentation book of all time.”

Both Nancy and Dan will be back at VizThink 2009, along with a host of other speakers who represent a broad spectrum of innovative thinking, including:

Robert Horn, one of the earliest innovators in the visual thinking field, who founded the company Information Mapping in 1967 and wrote the book Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century.

Colin Ware, Director of the world-reknowned Data Visualization Lab at the University of New Hampshire, who has written groundbreaking books on information visualization and visual reasoning, designed 3D geospatial visualization systems, and written over 100 scientific papers related to visualization and perception,

David Sibbet, Founder of the Grove consultancy, who has helped numerous businesses and non-profits develop vision and strategy through visualization,

Luke Wroblewski, Senior principal and product designer at Yahoo, who leads a team that designs and refines the user experience of online products and services,

Jock MacInlay, Xerox PARC veteran and information visualization expert, Director of Visual Analysis at Tableau software,

Joyce Hostyn, Senior Director of Product Design at Open Text, whose focus is bringing interaction design principles to Enterprise Software,

Tom Wujec of AutoDesk, who works with leading-edge Fortune 500 companies to help them incorporate visualization and collaboration into their innovation initiatives,

Jerry Michalski, social media expert who works with leading organizations around the world to help them build trust and community,

Darin Westrich, who has led global brand design for several P&G hallmark brands, such as Crest, Vick’s and Iams,

And many, many, more, too many to name here.

Last year I found VizThink to be a life-changing experience. I have never in my life felt so much electric energy in one place.

This is a tough economy and I know that it’s not easy to find money for conferences. But think about this: The speakers aren’t being paid to be there; they are all going at their own expense, because they want to be a part of this growing community.

VizThink is only weeks away, and due to current economic conditions, VizThink is not planning another global conference until the economy improves. So if you’re thinking, “I’ll go next year,” then think again. This year you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of this emerging community and I hope you will take advantage of it.

Who will be the breakaway new voices, and which ideas will drive innovation and transformation in 2009? Join me at VizThink 2009 and we’ll find out together.

Update: VizThink CEO Tom Crawford just gave me a discount code you can use to get $200 off the registration fee: When registering, just use the code FCDG01.

Unbooks and more

2009-01-23T20:09:00.004-06:00

Jerry Michalski's note-taking technique, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I'll be speaking at the upcoming O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York, which runs from February 9-11. I'm speaking on a panel called Building a Better Web-Based Book.

The reason I was asked to join the panel was partly because of my thoughts and experiments with the unbook. So I have three questions for you:

1) Do you have any thoughts on how we can build a better web-based book? Or thoughts about the future of the book as we enter an age that's more and more digital and distributed?

2) Is anyone else out there experimenting with ideas about delivering book content, whether it's a mix of paper and electronic media or something else?

3) Is anyone specifically doing an unbook, or an unbook-related project? I'm asking because I want to start an online list that links to all the known unbooks out there.

And I also have a suggestion: If you're interested in the future of the book, or the future of paper, you might want to join me and a few others in Albany NY the weekend before the conference at Papercamp, where we'll be exploring exactly ideas in a very open forum. Papercamp was started by Matt Jones, who has already run one in the UK. You can read a great writeup about that one here (This one's probably going to be smaller).

So I suppose I have a fourth question: Are you coming to Papercamp NY?

As always, please share your thoughts!

(Image above is a photo of Jerry Michalski demonstrating his note-taking methods)

Visual Thinking workshop

2009-01-23T11:06:00.002-06:00

I'll be conducting a pre-conference workshop on visual thinking the day before VizThink 09 in San Jose, CA. The photos above are from previous workshops.

This is the last day-long workshop I'll be doing for awhile, and it will be the last VizThink conference for at least a year. I hope you can make it!

More about VizThink.

More about the pre-conference workshop.

Comment spam

2009-01-19T09:58:00.002-06:00

Dear readers,

I guess it's a measure of popularity, but comment spam on this blog has gotten a bit out of control in recent months.

For those who don't know the term, comment spam refers to comments that are blatantly promotional and link back to the commenter. They say things like "Visit my pharmaceutical site" and "WOW power-leveller." Comment spam is an unethical way for web-based businesses to raise their rankings in the search engines.

It does not refer to comments that legitimately address the ideas in the blog post, however controversial those may be.

As this blog gets a fair amount of traffic, it seems to have become a target. I prefer not to moderate posts but at this point I am spending too much time every day going through comments and deleting spam. It's like weeding the garden, which was never my favorite chore.

So, reluctantly, I am instituting some weed-control measures. I have set comments on this blog to "moderated." I'm still allowing anonymous comments and I promise to publish any comments that relate to the posts, regardless of whether I agree or disagree. I'll even publish rude comments as long as they are relevant and not obscene. In matters where the decision is difficult, I will apply Robert Scoble's living room test.

I hope that this extra step will not discourage you from commenting on this blog. Your comments and the discussions they generate are the main reason I blog, so I hope they will continue.

Best regards,

Dave

Free the facts!

2009-01-17T17:55:00.006-06:00

Facts are an important element of any decision-making process. When we as a society make decisions that affect our future, facts, and conversation or argument about what they mean, is a critical part of those decisions.

But what is a fact, and how do we know that something is a fact? Is there a "keeper of the facts?"

This little thread is an exploration of facts: What they are, how they come to be, who has access to them and why. It's especially focused on the facts that make up the sum of our scientific knowledge.

If you enjoy this series you might also enjoy the thread where this conversation and inquiry began.

Read this thread, with all comments, on Flickr.

Read more about open access.

Read an open letter to the U.S. Congress, signed by 26 Nobel Prize winners.

Join the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, a diverse and growing alliance of organizations representing taxpayers, patients, physicians, researchers, and institutions that support open public access to taxpayer-funded research.

Learn more about what you can do to promote open access.

Write your U.S. Representative to demand open access for publicly funded research.

Contact your U.S. Senator.

Vote to make open access to research a priority for the Obama administration.

Some basic rules for napkin-sketching

2008-12-12T10:29:00.002-06:00

Here is a short (3.5 minutes) video with a few guidelines for making better napkin sketches:

1. Ground line

2. Center(s) of gravity

3. Connect figure to ground

4. Big-to-little

5. Draw through and over

I hope you enjoy it.

Visual thinking

2008-12-02T10:38:00.002-06:00

This is from a VizThink workshop in Chicago. More about VizThink here.

Upcoming

2008-11-25T20:33:00.004-06:00

Geneva workshop, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Quick update: Here are some upcoming events where I will be speaking or facilitating in the next couple of months. The photo shows Laurent Haug of LIFT fame in a previous workshop that I conducted in Geneva.

SXSW 2009 — Mar 13 - Mar 17, 2009

I'll be speaking on a panel at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. The panel is called Shift Happens: Moving from Words to Pictures. More.

VizThink 2009 — Feb 22 - Feb 25, 2009

I'll be speaking and facilitating at the VizThink conference in San Jose, California. More.

s-Lab launch8 — Dec 4, 2008

I'll be facilitating the launch of the Ontario College of Art and Design's Strategic Innovation Lab in Toronto.

How to draw a car

2008-11-20T15:47:00.001-06:00

How to draw a car, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I just posted a short video drawing lesson on how to draw a car here. I chose a car because it's one of those things that people quite often need to draw and often struggle with.

I show how you can use simple shapes to make something that conveys the idea pretty clearly. The same principles will apply to other kinds of drawings.

Let me know if you'd like to see more of these. Enjoy!

Good morning Amsterdam!

2008-10-16T04:35:00.004-05:00

I'm in Amsterdam today and this evening I will be having an informal conversation with Yuri Engelhardt and whoever else shows up. If you live here I hope you will join us. Here are the details:

Thursday 16 October, 20:00-21:30
Location: Department of Mediastudies, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Turfdraagsterpad 9, room 0.04. Map here.

Greetings Berlin!

2008-10-10T03:46:00.004-05:00

I arrived in Berlin yesterday for VizThink Europe 08. I will be touring the city with Tom Crawford and Ryan Coleman of VizThink. If you happen to be in or near Berlin and would like to meet up with us text message me at +1.314.496.6129 and I will text back our location. Hope to see you!

The eyes have it

2008-09-13T17:08:00.001-05:00

The eyes have it, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Actual bandwidth of the five senses, compared to the bandwidth we are consciously aware of. From The half-second delay: What follows?, a paper on learning, consciousness and perception.

Another quote from this interesting paper:
"Traditional models of affect posit that ... first we decide what we think, and then we decide how we feel about it. However, the evidence ... indicates that the real order of things is likely to be the reverse of this... what we feel about something tells us what we think."

Five reasons to go to VizThink in Berlin

2008-08-29T11:50:00.001-05:00

S-Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse Berlin Mitte Capital Germany, originally uploaded by holger doelle.

On October 12-14, 2008 I'll be facilitating at VizThink Berlin. For those of you who haven't heard, Vizthink is a global community of visual thinkers who believe the time is right to really engage with visual thinking as a practical way to solve problems and deliver understanding.

Here are five reasons to go to VizThink Berlin:

1. Flights are really, really cheap right now. I just got a round-trip ticket for less than $800.

2. Berlin, by all accounts, is one of the most exciting cities in Europe. The art scene there is world-renowned, with 450 art galleries, with approximately one new gallery opening every week.

3. VizThink will be one of the biggest collections of visual thinkers ever assembled in one place. If you are one of those people who feels a gravitational pull when you're near a whiteboard, you'll find an assembly of like-minded people such as you've never seen before.

4. Yuri Engelhardt will be there. Yuri is at the forefront of visual thinking research, and he's compiled the most thorough exploration and synthesis of visual grammatical forms I've ever seen. Plus you get two-for one: Christian Behrens is one of Yuri's students and a formidable figure in his own right, and he'll be there too. His exploration of visual frameworks, information design patterns, is one of the best in existence.

5. Manuel Lima will be there. Manuel is the genius behind Visual Complexity, a web-based compilation of the most interesting visual information displays on the web. He is also a senior user experience designer at Nokia, looking at the future of how we'll work with information on mobile devices.

The people mentioned above are based in Europe and don't come to the US very often, so this may be one of your only chances to see them all together in one place.

These are just a few of the speakers, and just a small number of the compelling reasons to go to Berlin this October. I'll definitely be there and hope you will decide to come too.

To register, or to get more information about VizThink, visit their website here.

The unbook

2008-08-26T05:56:00.007-05:00

The unbook

view presentationtags: davegray jaycross unbook xplane

Join me and Jay Cross tomorrow as we discuss the future of books:

More information here.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

10:30 PDT, 1:30 EDT

Conference Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1601
Save phone charges by using Skype to call in.

Participant Access Code: 391096#

Update: This presentation was just featured on the Slideshare home page! :)

Another update: For those of you who missed the call, Jay will be posting a recording and some other links here.

The Process

2008-08-15T21:04:00.002-05:00

Nonlinear presentation tool

2008-08-13T07:05:00.003-05:00

I just discovered this very interesting presentation tool which is being developed in Budapest.

ZuiPrezi is a zooming presentation editor which allows you to easily create dynamic and visually structured zooming maps of texts, images, videos, PDFs, and drawings. ZuiPrezi has a very intuitive interface and support for online sharing, and it works really well with tablet PCs.

This is a tool I can't wait to delve into -- I have been looking for something like this for a long time.

Business model innovation

2008-08-12T09:27:00.003-05:00

Alex Osterwalder does a great job of visually explaining business model innovation. He has several upcoming workshops and speaking engagements, including New York and Toronto, so depending on where you live you might have a chance to attend a workshop in the near future. More detail on upcoming events here.
Business Model Innovation Matters

View SlideShare presentation (tags: osterwalder alex alexander telco)

VizThink Toronto 7

2008-08-01T09:38:00.004-05:00

VizThink Toronto 7
Originally uploaded by Ryan ColemanRyan Coleman put together this excellent video of the recent VizThink get-together in Toronto.

Upcoming events

2008-07-14T17:40:00.005-05:00

Geneva workshop, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I'll be participating in a number of events in the coming months. Here's an update on some of the events where I'll be speaking or delivering workshops.

Visual and Iconic Languages (VaIL) conference — Jul 21 - Jul 22, 2008
At the VaIL conference I'll be speaking about visual language. If you can make it to San Diego, there's no charge to attend the conference.
Visual thinking workshop — Jul 25, - Jul 25, 2008
On July 25th I'll be delivering a full, one-day workshop in Toronto. In the workshop you'll learn how to visualize your ideas so you can think and communicate with greater clarity and effectiveness. Working individually and in small teams, you will learn and practice visualization techniques that have been successfully used to improve innovation and accelerate change at some of the world's leading companies. After completing this workshop you will have a toolkit for thinking and presentation effectiveness -- your presentations of complex information and strategies will never be the same. More.
Visual thinking in practice — Aug 19 - Aug 20, 2008
CONNECTICUT: What's the difference between theory and practice? In theory they're the same. In practice they're different. We'll look at some proven, practical tools and techniques for turning complex or potentially confusing information into clear, concise, concrete visual images. At this event I'll give a short talk followed by an afternoon workshop. Get more info at the CAIS Summer Institute.
IDEA 2008 — Oct 7 - Oct 8, 2008
I'll be speaking at the IDEA conference in Chicago. The IDEA Conference is a yearly conference about Information: Design, Experience and Access that is sponsored by the Information Architecture Institute. More.
VizThink 08 Berlin — Oct 12 - Oct 14, 2008
I'll be facilitating at VizThink 08 in Berlin. VizThink is an international community of visual thinkers. More.
Sarasota Design Summit — Oct 27 - Oct 28, 2008
More than 350 designers, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and business and technology professionals, exploring how design and design thinking are transforming technology and innovation. I've had a hand in proposing some of the speakers for this one, and can promise that some very interesting people will be there. More.
CANUX 2008 — Nov 16 - Nov 18, 2008
I'll be speaking/facilitating at CANUX 2008 in Banff, Alberta. CANUX is a small gathering, limited to 70 participants, with a focus on practical skills for user experience professionals—web designers, software developers, information architects, interaction designers, interface designers, communications, and anyone else who's passionate about making things work well for people. More.

I hope you'll decide to join me at one or more of these events!

London Calling!

2008-06-30T11:51:00.001-05:00

Geneva workshop, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

London is calling my name again.

Next week I'll be in London for two events, July 9th and 10th.

On July 9th, from 4pm-9pm, I will be leading a workshop called Thinking visually to tackle business challenges: A creative and innovative approach to problem solving.

Statistical surveys have shown that design and visualisation have averifiable impact on business performance. Visual articulation is important when solving a problem that involves strategic goals and initiatives. At its core, it helps bridge the problem or opportunity with the solution. That is why helping decision makers to think and express themselves visually gives organisations a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Joining me will be a couple of XPLANE clients, who will share case studies of how they employed visual thinking in their organisations.

There is a fee for the workshop and a 10% discount if you register by July 2nd. You can download a pdf description and register for the workshop here.

On July 10th I will be leading an interactive session and discussion at VizThink London. That event goes from 5:30-9:00pm.

I hope you can join me at one or both events -- and I am sure there will be drinks afterward in both cases, so if you can't make the events I hope you'll join us for the drinks!

The picture above is my friend Alex Osterwalder, from one of my previous workshops.

Who are you?

2008-06-26T12:08:00.003-05:00

VP of NO, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

A comment from Cindy, a new reader, prompted a realization that Communication Nation has quite a few new readers who have recently discovered this blog.

I have met many of you over the years and found you to be a unique and fascinating community of people. You need to be aware of each other! I did this a while back but I think it's time for an update.

Tell us:

Who are you?

Even if you don't regularly comment on blogs, please consider taking a minute to tell me and the other readers:
1. Who are you? If it's not too personal, what's your name and job title?
2. What industry or field do you work in or most strongly identify with?
3. What do you most want to see happening on this blog?

And/or anything else you want to talk about.

You also might want to check out the last post like this, from March of 2006, here.

And even if you left a note the last time I did this, it would be great to know what you're up to now and what's on your mind.

So please leave a note in the comments section and introduce yourself! We'd love to meet you.

Communication Nation named as top productivity blog

2008-06-20T13:48:00.003-05:00

Communication Nation has been named one of the top 50 productivity blogs of the year by Evan Carmichael. Woo-hoo!

How Obama reinvented campaign finance

2008-06-20T11:11:00.001-05:00

How Obama reinvented campaign finance, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Barack Obama is the first major candidate to decline participation in the public financing system for presidential campaigns. He’s found a more effective way to raise money – by leveraging the power of the American people through online Social Networks. Get the pdf version here.

Stories from the world's children

2008-06-16T15:03:00.001-05:00

During the United Nations Special Session on Children in May 2002, children discussed eight key issues and wrote a statement reflecting their views, ‘A World Fit for Us’.

Five years later, XPLANE worked with Unicef to develop a booklet to report back to children what progress has been made in their name; it also presents stories and concerns of children around the world.

In the video above, the XPLANE team offers a peek behind the scenes as they reflect on the project.

Click here to download a PDF or buy a print copy.

Q-tools for design and discovery

2008-06-04T17:52:00.001-05:00

Q-tools, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

You can think of a question as a tool that you can use to increase your knowledge or reduce uncertainty.

In fact, a question may be the most basic tool for gaining knowledge and working with information.

If this is so, then it makes sense to ask which kinds of questions are best suited to different kinds of information challenges. A set of standard questions that can be applied consistently to different situations might form the basis of a standard toolkit for information discovery and design.

Read the full post and share your thoughts here.

Garr Reynolds talks to Google

2008-06-02T20:39:00.001-05:00

Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen talks to Google about how to make an effective presentation. Excellent talk.

Why PowerPoint rules the business world

2008-05-22T11:36:00.001-05:00

Working through windows, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

The problem is this: PowerPoint is a visual tool, and we are a visually illiterate society. Read more.

Cartoonists make the best PowerPoints

2008-05-15T19:11:00.001-05:00

Great post by Austin Kleon:

FOR SUCCESSFUL POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, LOOK TO CARTOONISTS by Austin Kleon: "Powerpoint (or Keynote) slide software solves the problem of presenting an audience with a narrative that demands both verbal and visual elements. A slide presentation succeeds when the visual display works with the verbal communication of the speaker to create a narrative in the audience’s mind. The juxtaposition of pictures and words conjure connections and meaning that pictures or words alone could not.

Some of the best uses of Powerpoint come from the masters of verbal/visual, picture/word communication: cartoonists."

Ladies Ned

2008-05-14T18:54:00.001-05:00

Ladies Ned, originally uploaded by Pankcho.

Great image I found on Flickr.

:)

Visual language conversation

2008-05-10T17:27:00.003-05:00

go, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Recently I participated in a webcast where we discussed the emergence of visual language and debated some ideas about what it is and what it is not.

Here's the description from the Vizthink blog:

VizThink Blog Podcast 11: What qualifies as visual language anyway?: "In the visual thinking community, we frequently use the term visual language. Some would say that it gets used pretty loosely. So, today we began that discussion with 3 experts in our field in order to begin to understand what visual language really means. Neil Cohn, Yuri Engelhardt, and Dave Gray joined us to discuss topics like:

What is a visual language?
Does a visual language require a grammar?
What components make up a visual grammar?
Are certain forms of visualization a language and others not?"

There are quite a few visual examples that support the discussion.

I think the points where we disagreed are more intriguing than the points where we agreed. After you listen to the webcast I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

Introducing the global collaboration cue card project

2008-05-10T15:56:00.001-05:00

Dan Rose has posted an interesting exercise to demonstrate some of the differences between verbal and visual language.

Introducing the Global Collaboration Cue Card Project: "words are in fact models that are loaded with assumptions and values and... communicating with graphics is an effective method for conveying underlying and unspoken meaning."

Ten tips for global communicators

2008-05-09T17:40:00.022-05:00

The difference between local and global markets is like the difference between the fishbowl and the ocean. To understand and engage successfully requires a shift in perspective. Here are a few tips to help you get the most from your global communications efforts:

1. Get outside your fishbowl.
To go global you’ve got to get out from behind your desk. Your culture surrounds you like the air you breathe, and you can’t understand it until you get outside it. Spend some time – an extended period, if possible – completely immersed in another culture. When you return, you’ll be surprised how many things you notice that were previously invisible.

2. Be authentic.
Being global doesn’t mean losing your identity. If you’re a global company that was started in Germany and is headquartered in Germany, it’s perfectly ok to be German. It’s a multicultural world and you are a part of it too. The key is to be respectful of other cultures while being true to your own unique identity.

3. Remember that you are a guest.
When you are visiting another country, or when you open an office there, you are a guest. The same rules apply that would apply if you were visiting a friend’s house. Be polite, respectful, and thoughtful in your communications.

4. Think visually.
There’s a reason why TV is booming while newspapers are going out of business. People understand pictures faster and more easily than words. With pictures you can communicate complex ideas instantly, and virtually nothing is lost in translation. And words need to be translated, while pictures are a universal form of communication.

5. Ask for feedback.
Share your ideas with global teams early, when they are in the napkin-sketch stage, and ask for feedback. When you ask people to participate in defining the message, you build trust. If you build your message globally, then deployment becomes much easier.

6. Engage.
To communicate you need to engage with people, and when you engage, you will make mistakes. If you never make a cultural error, you’re probably not communicating at all. Try to get outside your comfort zone. There is such a thing as being too safe. People will forgive your mistakes if they believe you are well-intentioned.

7. Respect is a two-way street.
If you work for a global company, your company’s culture may be as strong and important as the global cultures you interact with. There will be times when your company culture is directly at odds with the local culture. When those times arise, you need to have a clear policy on what is negotiable and what is not: Is fluency in English an absolute requirement? You may not want to hire interpreters for every conference call.

8. Localize strategically.
Localization is a slippery slope. You can localize to the regional level, to the country level, and beyond – there are nine officially recognized languages in South Africa alone. Balance the expense of localization against the benefits you expect to gain.

9. Listen between the lines.
Many cultures have subtle or indirect ways of dealing with conflict and communicating sensitive information. Watch people’s faces and body language for cues. If you sense something may be amiss, ask politely if you are missing anything, or take an associate aside for a quick chat. In conference calls it’s much more difficult: silence can be an indication of many things, including disinterest, confusion, displeasure, and even agreement.

10. Socialize.
In many cultures, communication outside of the office is as important as what happens inside. Take invitations seriously. Many of your most important lessons and ideas will come from informal conversations, where people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts.

VizThink workshop in NYC

2008-05-04T18:59:00.002-05:00

VizThink workshop in NYC, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Last week's workshop in New York last week went very well -- it was the debut of my latest thoughts on visual language, which synthesizes the work of many visual language researchers and information designers.

It's a major project but I am trying to boil down all the research into a simple "ABC book" -- a primer of visual language.

I believe my thoughts were well-received by the group, which included a broad mix of people, from designers to bankers. The group even included a brain scientist who said that the visual language concepts map very well to current concepts in brain science. I am looking forward to talking more about that.

There's still time to register for the Chicago workshop, which is coming up this Wednesday, May 7. You can register here.

The Whirl

2008-04-14T10:29:00.004-05:00

I talk a little bit about the challenges of the information age and how visual language can help. Click here to watch the video.

Death by PowerPoint

2008-04-11T14:48:00.005-05:00

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Fighting death by PowerPoint... How to make a presentation and not to bore your audience to death.

Slideshare link

New website!

2008-04-10T19:10:00.004-05:00

New website!, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I'm launching a new website, Dave Gray info, to focus on pulling together my ideas into a more holistic form.

I'll be using it to talk about the book I'm writing and organize the ideas. Check it out at davegrayinfo.com. Please take a look and share your thoughts!

Note: This used to be davegrayinfo.com but that domain seems to be blocked by many corporate filters (see comments section).

Forms fields and flows video

2008-04-08T22:32:00.002-05:00

Forms fields and flows video, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I talk and draw about visual language here.

Visualizing information: A workshop with Dave Gray and Karl Gude

2008-04-02T14:11:00.005-05:00

I am happy to announce that I will be giving two workshops with Karl Gude called Visualizing Information, one on May 2nd in New York and the other on May 7th in Chicago.

Karl was the Graphics Director for Newsweek until recently, when he left to focus on teaching at Michigan State University.

The workshop will focus on information design and information visualization. We'll be looking at techniques that both Karl and I have used to translate complex information into graphics, diagrams, charts and maps.

The content is suitable for business people and any communications professional who is looking to improve their visualization skills.

Karl is a very engaging speaker – he's both informative and hilarious, a rare gift. I am very excited to be working with him.

Right now these are the only two workshops Karl and I are planning to give together, so this may be the only opportunity to see us both in one workshop.

Here's a description of the workshop:

Participants will learn how visual thinking can be used to explore complex information and present it more effectively. This workshop combines high-level design principles with practical applications – rules of thumb and “tricks of the trade” – that professional information designers use to quickly create clear representations from complex or potentially confusing information.

Participants will learn through a series of hands-on exercises, designed to develop their analytical, design and visual thinking abilities. Workshop facilitators Karl Gude and Dave Gray have, collectively, more than 50 years of practical, hands-on experience, creating visual explanations for national news media and multinational corporations.

Topics covered include:
- Introduction to visual language and visual literacy
- Strategies of information design
- Primary methods for organizing both qualitative and quantitative information
- Professional tips and tricks

Your presentations don’t have to be dull and ridden with bullet points. After this workshop you will understand how to explore, organize and visually display information of all kinds, from complex data sets to visual instruction manuals.

Click here to register!

VizThink 08 sketch notes

2008-03-27T15:21:00.002-05:00

3d -- A model for learning and improvement

2008-03-27T12:30:00.003-05:00

All learning and improvement begins with action -- with doing. For example, as a child you touch a hot stove.

Action leads to discovery; in this case, the discovery that the action led to pain, burning, discomfort.

Based on this discovery you design new ways of interacting with your environment.

Based on your design you do things differently. Over time this leads you closer and closer to your ideal relationship with your surroundings.

The entire process is called successive approximation.

Successive approximation is the secret sauce that makes methods like agile programming work so well.

It's the same process that is at work when you have a conversation.

You say (do) something, and then, based on the feedback you receive (body language, facial expression, reply) you discover something, based on which you design your next utterance, etc.

Successive approximation works because, unlike many business thinking, planning and execution activities, it's easy and natural; we do it instinctively.

Be like the internet

2008-03-22T10:27:00.001-05:00

Presented at SXSW.

| View | Upload your own

Greetings from Geneva!

2008-03-11T04:37:00.003-05:00

Greetings from Geneva!, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I'm in Geneva this week and next. If you are in the area and want to connect, send me an email at dave.gray@gmail.com.

The adventures of Helvetica man (and woman)

2008-03-04T18:29:00.004-06:00

By Ti.mo.

Visual thinking workshop in Geneva

2008-02-29T12:21:00.003-06:00

Visual thinking workshop in Toronto, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I'll be giving a workshop in Geneva on March 18th.

We'll be covering the same things I covered in my one-day workshop at VizThink, so if you are based in Europe and were unable to attend, this is a great opportunity to learn about and explore visual language in a small group setting.

I talk a little bit about the workshop here.

Click here to download the flyer and register.

I hope to see you there!

Project manager jobs at XPLANE

2008-02-21T15:35:00.001-06:00

XPLANE is looking for Project Managers for our Portland and Alanta offices. You can find the job descriptions for each of these positions at http://www.xplane.com/#/careers/

Dave Gray on visual thinking and business

2008-02-19T10:10:00.013-06:00

Alex Osterwalder of Arvetica, a consulting firm that caters to the private banking industry, interviewed me last week. We talked about communication, visual thinking and how they can be applied to business.
Podcast:

Peter Pan and Willy Wonka on visual and creative thinking

2008-02-14T14:23:00.003-06:00

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Presentation on Visual and Creative Thinking. The presentation explores how professional in all fields can apply creative and visual thinking skills to their work as well as why people ignore the talents that made them naturally creative as children. The author discusses the myths that people hold about creativity, why they exist and how you can overcome them.

From: themoleskin, 2 months ago

SlideShare Link

XPLANE starts playing with mobile content

2008-02-13T12:03:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone,

The video above is designed to be delivered to a mobile phone or other mobile device. This is one of our first explorations -- we're just beginning to play in the world of content for mobile. This is a new area for us and I'm very interested to hear your reaction and any thoughts/ideas/comments/concerns you might have.

Please share your thoughts.

Visio Conference 2008

2008-02-12T14:09:00.001-06:00

Index card, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Just published my notes from the Visio 2008 Conference in Seattle.

I drew this card when Jeff Raikes was describing how Steve Ballmer recruited him from Apple by scribbling diagrams about their future vision in a restaurant.

You can view the rest of my notes here.

Bob Horn on visual language

2008-02-11T12:10:00.001-06:00

Index card, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Bob was speaking at VizThink 08.

The amazing sticky-note trick

2008-02-08T16:51:00.001-06:00

Click To Play

Big thank you to Marcus of L'Arte

How to Draw an Eye, with Karl Gude

2008-02-08T12:48:00.001-06:00

Karl Gude demonstrates how to draw an eye. His pencil breaks and he just keeps on going. What a show-off!

Why go to VizThink?

2008-01-02T21:10:00.000-06:00

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Are you a visual thinker? Do you want to improve your communications, presentations, learning, and marketing using visuals? VizThink '08 is the place for you! Find out why in this presentation.

SlideShare Link

Visual thinking podcast

2007-12-13T14:02:00.000-06:00

Tony Karrer is the CEO of TechEmpower, an E-Learning development company, and author of the E-Learning Technology blog.

Last Friday Tony expressed some skepticism about the role of visual thinking in e-learning on his blog, which started an interesting discussion. A bunch of people weighed in on visual thinking's benefits, including me.

I love the way Tony expressed his thoughts on his blog. He laid out his thoughts and asked the community to respond. Too many people, in a desire to be polite or not make waves, hold back their thoughts. I think that's a mistake. If you keep your concerns to yourself you don't give people a chance to help you understand -- in effect you close yourself off to learning.

By revealing his concerns Tony demonstrated that he is a true learner and opened a tremendously valuable conversation.

Next week Tony and I will enter into a podcast conversation about e-learning and visual thinking. I am really looking forward to speaking with Tony and hope you will listen in to this live podcast.

We'll be talking next Thursday, December 20, from 11am to noon EST. You can register for the podcast here.

Meanwhile, Tony and I are collecting any questions you have or ideas you'd like to see us cover in our conversation. So... are you skeptical about the power of visual thinking? Do you have questions about how it works, why it works, whether it works?

Or maybe you have friends or co-workers who have asked you questions about visual thinking that you found it difficult to answer.

Please share your thoughts and questions here, and I will try to work them into the conversation. I hope you will join us!

Affinity mapping

2007-12-06T12:24:00.001-06:00

Affinity mapping, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Affinity mapping is a way to sort large amounts of data into logical groups. Existing items and/or new items identified by individuals are written on sticky notes which are sorted into categories as a workshop activity. It's a great way to get the power of a group working for you to organize information and ideas.

Read more here.

What do you want?

2007-11-11T17:57:00.003-06:00

What do you want?, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I love to ask the question "what do you want?" The photos above are from a session I facilitated at The Overlap. But I do this all the time. Here's a list of things people say they want:

Cohesion of ideas
To learn to connect ideas and show (linkages) relationships between concepts using visual language
To see a new idea take shape
To understand whether tablet PCs are a good investment for visual thinking
Better PowerPoint presentations
Scalable visual thinking
Pattern from complexity
Find what's missing
Get to WOW without sacrificing substance
Health
Structure
Money
Ice cream
More revenue
VizLearning
Experiences
Better communication
Inspiration
Community
Interaction
Connections
New ways to guide groups for problem-solving exercises
Continuous training in XPLANE style
Better sharing
Better organization
Ability to get to "I get it" faster!
To see how others think and communicate their thoughts
A more fun way to present ideas
Better communication with clients
A separation!
To see Dave Gray again
To meet like-minded people
To communicate clearly
To meet interesting people
The world to adopt a visual-based language
To learn about visual thinking
To get the stuff in my head out!
Node: Image + word + links
Pepsi
Insight
Illumination
Idea generation
To be creative
Learn quick, powerful icons
To explain things better
Something! NEW
Learn more about your process for developing the metaphor
To communicate to others better
To think more clearly
To be able to simplify complex processes and show that improvement
New ideas for infographics
Constructive thinking
To be able to better communicate complex ideas
New ideas
To make complex ideas digestible
To exercise my pen
To experience understanding aha!
To learn to express complex processes visually
Depth
Impact, translation, clarity through visuals
To give more but show less
Knowledge
Tips for drawing fast
Focus
To be able to achieve better, faster clarity
To communicate with others faster
Clarity
Insight
Instant impact
Clarity
To separate ideas better
Simplicity
To explain things faster
To create real time sketches
Learn process of production
Drawing emotions fast
Visualize abstract concepts
Clarity of thought
Insight
Wisdom
Knowledge
Draw to understand
Clearer thinking
To become proficient in non-linear thinking!
New perspective
To learn shapes, so I don't have to learn how to draw
Learn types of visual frameworks
To visually depict complex concepts
Mapping points of view
Visual techniques for describing things
Quick icons
To learn new techniques and tools to think visually
To improve my sense of visual design
To develop my creative visual thinking skills
To learn more about representing things visually
To understand how visual thinking works in the brain (or any other body part)
To utilize visual thinking in daily life
Drawing "tricks" (tips for visual thinking)
Tips for drawing faces
Skillz
To be better at visualizing concepts
To improve my sketchy drawing skills
Technique, skillz
To learn to draw
Mad skills
Remember who we are
Identity
Clear core values
More people like the good ones I work with
To lead, to do, not talk about it
To be recognized
Close the loop between ideas and work
To explore ecology
Do people lead or follow in creativity?
To laugh
Why business is only now recognizing many communications values
Options scare me sometimes
New paths
Go analog!
To understand what is emerging
To have faith
Not design thinking
Fresh air
Share unselfishly
Dream while awake
Turbulence
Theory
Teach myself
Us to break shit
Meet new people
Breath
To be provocative
To experience collaboration of this kind
Remember my childhood
New ideas
Fire and beer
Cozy
Overlap to be characterized by love
Frickin' sharks with laser beams
It to be terrifying
All of us to bring our authentic selves
Post-mortem of conference to share with everyone
To map ideas
To leave with ideas that are tangible not indulgent

What do you want?

What do you love?

2007-11-11T17:57:00.001-06:00

What do you love?, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I love to ask the question "what do you love?" The photos above are from a session I facilitated at The Overlap. But I do this all the time. Here's a list of things people say they love:

Laughing
Internet
Jim Woodring
Gutsy weird people
Elvis
Money
Starting companies
Networking
Ping Pong
Gardening
Laughing till I cry
Pirates
Humor
Zings!
Children laughing
Drawing challenging or cool stuff
Bright colors
Free post-its
Design
Contemporary marbles
Cool shoes
Paper
Old comics
Coming up with wild ideas for comics
Information design
Optigan keyboard
Art
Handmade album covers
Shoes and handbags
Woodworking
Magic erasers
Energy
Dancing
Couches
Calvin and Hobbes
Drawing comics
Music
Dance
Ted's super skull drawing
Cottage interiors
Martha Stewart Living
Comics
Whole Foods
High-concept mix CDs
Creativity
Drawing
Design
Writing
Furniture
Chaos and change
Cooking
Our house
Chocolate
Wine and cheese
Italian food
French fries
Trailer trash dinners
Nachos
Breakfast on the front porch with the New York Times (waffles)
Rafennelli Zin
Cake
Cheese
Coffee! Mostly Latte's
Learning about cooking
Sailing
Lunch
Food and drink
Iced tea
Snow skiing
Live music
Comics
Interweb
Jack and Rexella Van Impe
Sales
Marker fumes
Toronto
That there may be waffles
That a company like this [XPLANE] exists
Refining concepts without "talking" them through
Dave Gray
Breaking out of linear thought
The open door policy
Ideas and burrito boyz
Burritos
Getting outside
Pepsi
Ryan Coleman
Comfy seats
Insight
Iconography
That you're here
Sunshine
Growing things
Cycling
How engaging visual information is
Pen and paper
Flowers
Visual thinking
Drawing
Love
Sketching
Photography
Smiling
Clarity
Emphasize important concepts
Learning from others
Learning about new ways to incorporate art with business
The power of visual language... tell me more!
See concepts from a distance
Flexible, "unplanned" agenda
Simplicity
Clarity
Accuracy
Easier to understand
Easy communication
Conversation
Communicating
Writing
Add depth and insight
Learning
Sharing my own experiences
The collective desire to learn
Having fun
Engaging, interesting presentations
The peanut gallery
The community
Community
Novelty
Connections
Socializing
Collaboration
Meeting different people
Sense of community
Brainstorming, exploration
That I don't get to do this 9-5 pm
Sharing of tools, concepts
Knowledge sharing
The physical environment, location
The beer and conversation that follows
Kewl doods
People looking for a different way to do stuff
Expressing complex ideas
Experiencing a creative process
The community "vibe"
Getting inspired
Identity
Sharing of ideas
The people
Not having a clue why people are here and what they bring to the table!
Community
Pretty pictures
Simplifying complexity
Simplicity
Simplicity
Information design
People
Customers, friends
Relationships
Passion, vision, fire
Cool people doing cool stuff
Clarity
Not thinking
The scientist diagram intro game
Communication without language barriers
Cool ideas coming together
The prospect of helping clients "get it" quickly
Risk
Learning
Participating
Juxtaposing ideas
Learning
Effectiveness
Being inspired
Process
New paradigms
Changing the way people think
Changing the way I see things
Making an impact
To draw more better
Pictures
Being exposed to new ideas
Learning new ways to do things
The ideas
The learning experience
Innovation
Organizing my projects visually
To combine words and images
To collaborate
Wrestling with what's not quite known
The way my name tag moves up and down
Mess
My tribe
To observe how people exceed their own expectations when participating in a good conversation
ASILOMAR
The diversity that exists at the borders
Freedom to rethink conventions
Consistent inconsistency
On Monday I get to return to changing the world
Post-its
I do not love the name "The Overlap." I do love the ideas it seeks to find a name -- and a habitation delightful -- for.
Opportunity
Cold? Beer Wine? Use the garbage can in your room + ice machine
Opportunity to explore the future
Getting people drawing
Opportunity
Open source thinking
Getting away from a chilly San Francisco "summertime."
Sharing and learning from others
Community
Cross-pollination
[Infinity symbol]
[Torch symbol]
Smart people acting silly
A messy desk
Community
Toggling between abstract frameworks and concrete solutions
Personal growth
Clarity through language

What do you love ?

More VizThink ideas

2007-11-11T15:29:00.000-06:00

I have added some more session ideas for my workshops at VizThink.

If you have time I would appreciate it if you would take a look and let me know your thoughts. New ideas are at the top of the post.

Thanks!

Two versions of Google's master plan

2007-10-29T10:00:00.001-05:00

Click the image to see the plan.

Back in Helsinki

2007-10-21T15:08:00.000-05:00

I'll be back in Helsinki this week, leaving Thursday morning. Please send me an email at dave dot gray at gmail dot com if you want to connect.

Mapping the future of conferences

2007-10-21T05:58:00.000-05:00

Eileen Clegg of Visual Insight has posted an interesting map of the future of conferences. It's not just the map that's interesting, but you can also click on various parts of the image and listen to the dialogue that the image summarizes.

I think there's a lot of potential -- combining visuals with dialogue has always been a challenge online, and this map is a great prototype of what's possible.

I also think there are some great ideas here that we should be applying to VizThink 08.

Take a look.

Coding and decoding

2007-10-18T11:12:00.001-05:00

Coding and decoding, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

We code and decode information all the time -- it's part of the process of living.

Coding -- or encoding -- is the process of making a concept or idea understandable to others. It could be an email, a scrawl, a napkin sketch or a sign.

Decoding is the process of interpreting information that was coded by someone else. How many things do you think you encode or decode in a given day? How well do you code information?

Can you interpret all the codes you see above? If you can you might want to take a try at the codes in this Flickr photo set.

1. go, 2. Left, 3. CAUTION, 4. Walk, 5. Sign, 6. Crosswalk, 7. Danger, 8. Lock -->, 9. Visual language, 10. Pringles in Abu Dhabi, 11. Green light, 12. Arrow

Picturing the VizThink community

2007-10-16T12:27:00.001-05:00

VizThink Community, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

Tom Crawford of VizThink started a conversation by asking people to visualize the visual thinking community. There's an interesting thread of comments here and some images here.

Some of the commenters said that it's a mistake to try to segment the community. I don't know if I agree but I do think it's difficult. In my opinion visual thinking is like a lens -- it can be applied to anything.

So here's my attempt to picture the community -- it's a small sample of the visual thinkers I have met and connected with in recent months. Do you see yourself?

Links to the photos:

1. Overlap 07, 2. Overlap 07, 3. Overlap, 4. Gabe, 5. VTS, 6. VTS, 7. VTS, 8. VTS, 9. VTS, 10. VTS, 11. VTS, 12. Jeff Wilson, 13. Bill Keaggy sketching, 14. Susie Robison, 15. Drew Crowley, 16. Nick Main, 17. Overlap 07, 18. James Macanufo, 19. Overlap 07, 20. Overlap 07, 21. Overlap 07, 22. Overlap 07, 23. Overlap 07, 24. Overlap 07, 25. Overlap 07, 26. Overlap 07, 27. Overlap 07, 28. Overlap 07, 29. Overlap 07, 30. Overlap 07, 31. Overlap 07, 32. Overlap 07, 33. Overlap 07, 34. Overlap 07, 35. Overlap 07, 36. Overlap 07

Visual thinking practice: How to draw a stick dog

2007-10-16T05:54:00.001-05:00

stickdog, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

One of my most popular posts, according to Google, is one I wrote some time ago about how to draw a stick figure. Recently a reader named Jade posted this comment:

"I've got the person thing going, but how would you do a dog...?"

I drew this at InkGram, a very interesting new tool by Loren Heiny. It's very new, in beta and it's still a little buggy, but very cool. And unfortunately it doesn't work in Firefox.

My sessions at VizThink: What do YOU think?

2007-10-16T04:28:00.001-05:00

I'll be giving a workshop at VizThink, and also a special pre-session (limited to 50 people) on the Sunday before the event. I would love to get your input about what I should cover. Here are some of my starting thoughts:

Who are we? Understanding the VizThink Community. A special workshop where several facilitators work with the group to define the community. What is the change we want to make in the world?

Visual Thinking toolkit. A tour of the visual thinking toolbox used by XPLANE consultants and designers. Part facilitation techniques, part drawing, all fun. Includes ways to engage groups and get them thinking visually, plus drawing and design tips.

Envision your Vision. Every large organization these days has a "vision statement" -- IT'S A VISION PEOPLE! In this hands-on workshop you'll learn how to develop a vision for your company, department or group -- and learn how to do it the right way: visually.

The Elements of PowerPoint Style. Take your PowerPoint to the next level. Tools, tips and tricks to make your PowerPoint clear, cool and compelling.

Goals and metrics. How to set simple but clear goals and metrics for your communication, so you can know when it's working and when it's not.

From "boxes and lines" to rich pictures. How to represent abstract ideas and concepts visually.

Visual thinking practice. Practice and coaching drawing and visualizing your ideas. Practice presenting your ideas to others.

Visual thinking tools. What are the best tools for visual thinking? Analog tools like sticky notes, software and online tools for organizing ideas, technology like digital cameras. What are some of the best ways to use the tools as part of a systematic approach to visual thinking?

PowerPoint makeovers. Bring a presentation that you want to improve. We'll break out into small groups, and each group will take a presentation, break it down into its components, and re-create the story to make it more clear, visual and compelling.

Selling visual thinking. How to explain visual thinking to "non-believers." Why they should care. Why it's important. What it can do for them. What to call it.

Engaging your organization. Getting people in your company to think and deliver ideas and content more visually. How to build alignment with brand teams on some of the unique requirements of information visualization.

Changing the world. A group session on the visual thinking community, who it is, what we can do together.

Personal action plan. How to incorporate visual thinking into your life as a daily/weekly habit. Things you can do on an ongoing basis to hone your visual thinking skills.

I want your thoughts, whether or not you plan to attend VizThink or the special pre-session.

These are just starting points. I want your feedback and ideas.

Please leave a comment and tell me what you'd like to see in visual thinking training. In your comment it would help me if you'd say whether or not you plan to attend the events.

Thanks!

What can visual thinking do for you?

2007-10-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

What's the value of visual thinking? Who should go to VizThink? I speak with Rodolfo Carpintier of Baquia TV about the importance of visual thinking for strategy, clarity, and organizational alignment.

What is VizThink?

2007-10-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

What is visual thinking? Why should you care? Rodolfo Carpintier of Baquia TV interviews me about the visual thinking revolution and the upcoming VizThink conference.